Yahoo Finance Yahoo Finance Sign in Search query Search for news or symbols Yahoo Finance Walmart is the 2024 Yahoo Finance Company of the Year Brian Sozzi Brian Sozzi · Executive Editor Updated Mon, December 16, 2024 at 9:23 PM GMT+6 12 min read In This Article: StockStory Top Pick COST +0.36% AMZN +2.40% TGT -1.54% How Hitachi Digital Services Transforms OT And IT Challenges Into Opportunities Insider Ad Now past its sixth decade, Walmart (WMT) is getting its second wind. The legacy retailer, once seen as slow to adopt technology as Amazon (AMZN) rose to the forefront, has quietly invested in everything from artificial intelligence and augmented reality to same-day delivery and cheap groceries. The combo punch has led to nearly four quarters of record earnings — and a title as Yahoo Finance's annual Company of the Year award winner. A committee of Yahoo Finance editorial leaders selected Walmart because of its strong year of sales and profits, financial outperformance relative to key rivals like Target (TGT), and a stock price that has reached fresh records in 2024. "I'm a pretty conservative, kind of play-it-safe kind of person," longtime CEO Doug McMillon said in an exclusive sit-down inside a Walmart supercenter near its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. "But to get the change that we needed, we had to take risks in the form of acquisitions, in the form of big investments. Those can be breathtaking at times, but that's one way that I know I've changed — I'm faster to accept risks than I was before." McMillon, who climbed the ranks from loading Walmart trucks in his teens to the top of America's largest retailer, is charging ahead as the business enters a 2025 fraught with uncertainties. Through the years, some Walmart lifers have gone so far as to paint McMillon as founder Sam Walton reincarnated — though the humble, deeply religious McMillon would never repeat those words. Yet his vision has vaulted Walmart to the top of the Yahoo Finance stock charts, even as consumer sentiment struggles amid high inflation and the company deals with controversial decisions such as mandatory return to office and rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. In August, Walmart said it would cut prices on 7,200 products to maintain "competitive price gaps" with rivals. The result? The company trounced cheap-chic rival Target in its third quarter despite Target's own slew of price cuts. Earlier this month, Walmart closed on its $2.3 billion acquisition of smart TV maker Vizio. The deal will yield a plethora of consumer data while turbocharging an advertising business growing at a double-digit sales pace a quarter. Walmart's shares are up 82% year to date, compared to a 27% gain for the S&P 500 and an 18% advance for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. "I'm aware [of the stock price]," McMillon said, chuckling as we chatted inside the produce section. "I try not to focus on that too much. It's the inputs that drive the outputs, and I spend my time on the inputs." The year when everything clicked Walmart CEO Doug McMillon (left) talks with Yahoo Finance executive editor Brian Sozzi about how the company drove one of its performances of the past decade in 2024. Walmart has won Yahoo Finance's annual Walmart CEO Doug McMillon (left) talks with Yahoo Finance executive editor Brian Sozzi about how the company drove one of its best performances of the past decade in 2024. Walmart has won Yahoo Finance's annual "Company of the Year" award. · Yahoo Finance I met McMillon somewhat early in his CEO tenure in 2017. We set up shop inside a hotel lobby in New York City and talked for 30 minutes or so. I remember coming away thinking McMillon was a quietly intense guy who maybe had the best grasp on his business of any executive I knew. When we reconnected in Bentonville just prior to Black Friday madness, McMillon appeared to be the same guy I met in 2017 — but with the elevated confidence befitting a battle-tested executive. "I go back to before the pandemic," McMillon recalled. "[When] we invested in wages for our associates, we invested in our people in things like education, we invested in lower prices, we invested in e-commerce, and we invested in technology all within a pretty tight period of time." "That obviously created some pressure on the bottom line and some overhang for how people think about Walmart." The bets paid off as the pandemic spurred an age of curbside pickup and fast deliveries. "I think it caused a lot of people, customers and our associates, to recognize that we were on the right track. And we just kind of haven't looked back since then," he said. The company is becoming very competitive with Amazon as it offers more items online and grows its third-party seller marketplace. It's working on generative AI-powered chatbots and making the site more responsive and personalized. It's also leaning into same-day delivery and buy online, pickup in store. Walmart has begun using drone delivery in the Bentonville area and has ambitions to bring that to life in more towns. The chain is gaining market share from high-income households who are noticing the vastly improved shopping experience. It's a callout Walmart has mentioned in each of its earnings reports this year as the retailer shakes its no-frills image. "Walmart has become a much better competitor," noted retail strategist Jan Rogers Kniffen. In 2017, Amazon took 36.4% of sales among Digital Commerce 360's top 2000 North American online retailers, while Walmart accounted for a paltry 4.4%. This year, it projects Walmart will have a 10.6% share to Amazon's 39.7%. "They are reaching new limits on what a mature company can do," Neuberger Berman analyst John San Marco told Yahoo Finance. Despite Walmart's gargantuan size and competitive industry dynamics, the raw numbers support the view that the company will set the bar even higher in 2025. Walmart rings the register financially Walmart's third quarter showed a retailer capitalizing on penny-pinching consumers on both the low-income and higher-income spectrums. The company beat Wall Street estimates on sales and earnings, powered by a 5.3% comparable sales gain at its largest division — its namesake US business. Walmart US saw sales gains in higher-frequency product categories such as food and health and wellness. Its global e-commerce sales rose a hearty 27%. The company lifted its full-year forecast again, with a sales growth of 4.8% to 5.1%. The midpoint of its earnings outlook of $2.45 per share represents an 11% year-over-year jump. companies to be engaged in these social conversations. Whereas millennials, they tend to be more supportive for this trend. So as millennials are becoming more of the backbone of this economy, there can be some potential consequences," M.K. Chin, associate professor at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, told Yahoo Finance. Donna Morris quote Donna Morris quote In a Dec. 2 phone call with Yahoo Finance, Walmart's chief people officer, Donna Morris, defended the company's choice. "We are the exact same company today as we were last week, and we will continue to be the same company," Morris said. "We act with integrity, we serve our customers and our members, and we strive for excellence. So our values are absolutely not changing." Morris said Walmart has